


Anger and Comfort

by teagarden15



Category: A3! (Video Game)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-22
Updated: 2020-07-22
Packaged: 2021-03-05 00:49:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,371
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25435690
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/teagarden15/pseuds/teagarden15
Summary: After a call from her mother, Izumi struggles with resentment toward her father, so Omi helps her out.
Comments: 11
Kudos: 47





	Anger and Comfort

**Author's Note:**

> I understand that Izumi loves and admires her father, but it seems weird that there’s zero indication of her being upset about her father appearing to abandon her and her mother when she was a teenager. Though I have a crack theory that Reni is Guy’s father since Guy recognized him (is Reni old enough to be Guy’s father? Reni’s 45, but I don’t know how old Guy is), and that Reni somehow forced Yukio to disappear because he wanted to destroy the Mankai company since he wasn’t good enough to join it as an actor like his son wanted him to . . . I might write a fic about the fallout if Guy and Izumi learned that info.

“You want to get remarried?” Izumi said, staring off into space as she held her phone to her ear. She had just finished helping out another troupe and was on her way home when her mother called her. 

When she got a glare from a passerby, she realized she’d stopped in the middle of the sidewalk. She whispered an apology as she moved to stand by a store window out of the way of pedestrians. 

“We started dating soon after you left,” her mother said, her voice light. Izumi could her the excitement in her voice, but she was probably keeping it toned done because she didn’t know how Izumi would react to this news. “Pretty soon we started seeing each other almost every day. He’s so kind and gentle. I know you would like him. I’ve told him all about you and he thinks we should come catch one of your company’s plays so that he can meet you since it’s so difficult for you to get time away from work.”

“That’s thoughtful,” Izumi said. Especially since it would be more work and more money for her mom and her boyfriend to come here than for Izumi to return home. “So, if you guys are dating so seriously, should I start looking for a dress?” she teased. 

There was silence on the other end. 

“Mom?” 

When she spoke, her voice was deeply bitter, a tone Izumi had never heard her use before. “We can’t get married right now. I’m still married to Yukio.” She spat the word Yukio like it was a curse. “He didn’t even have the decency to divorce me before he abandoned us, and I have no idea where he is, so I’m stuck.” 

Izumi’s grip on her phone tightened, tears springing to her eyes at the pain she heard in her mother’s voice. “There’s nothing you can do?” she asked quietly.

Her mother sighed. “Kaname, the man I’m dating, says that after someone has been missing for ten years they can be declared legally dead. Yukio has been gone for nearly nine years, so it would be about a year and a half before I could file to have him declared dead.” 

Izumi hesitated before saying her thought, but it still came out, “But we don’t believe that Dad is dead . . .” There had been no evidence of foul play when he’d disappeared. One day, Yukio and all of his belongings were simply gone from the Mankai Theater. 

“So I’m supposed to put my life on hold indefinitely hoping that one day that coward will appear again and grant me a divorce?” her mother snapped. Izumi flinched. 

Izumi heard her mother take a deep breath. “I’m sorry, Izumi. This has been weighing on my mind ever since Kaname and I became serious. I love him. He loves me. We want to be together for the rest of our lives.” She heard the smile in her mother’s voice when she added, “And Kaname says he wants to do things properly, which means getting married.”

Izumi smiled as well. “He sounds like a really great guy, Mom.” She chewed her lip. “I have some guys in my theater who are good at looking up information and know a lot of things. I’ll see if they can figure out a way for you to get married. It’s ridiculous for you to be expected to stay married to a man you haven’t had contact with in over eight years.” Surely, Chikage or Sakyo would be able to figure out if there was a way to get around this problem. Or be inventive enough to create a way around it.

“You’re such a gem,” her mother breathed. “I don’t know how I got so lucky to have such a wonderful daughter.”

The thought blew through Izumi’s mind that it was to make up for having such a crappy husband, but instead she chirped, “Because I had such a wonderful mother! I’ll let you know what I find. Love you!”

“Love you too. I’ll let you know when Kaname and I can come visit you and catch one of your plays.”

“Okay. Bye, Mom.” Izumi had only taken a few steps when she realized that there was another possible solution to this problem. Plenty of people had no idea where Yukio was, but she knew one person who might. Her feet turned before her mind fully formed the thought and she found herself making her way to Yuzo’s theater. 

~.~ 

“I need to know where my father is,” Izumi announced by way of greeting.

Luckily, she’d caught Yuzo by himself in the front entryway of his theater. They had a play going on tonight, so she’d hoped to be lucky enough to find Yuzo there. 

“I can’t tell you that,” Yuzo said, crossing his arms and frowning down at her.

Izumi’s eyes flashed. “It’s not for me, and you don’t have to tell me. My mom has been dating a wonderful man for over the past year and wants to marry him, but legally she can’t because she’s still married to the bastard who left her nine years ago without so much as a goodbye.” 

She didn’t mean to lash out at Yuzo, but she’d been stewing her entire walk there. Hearing her mother’s complaints had dredged up so many bitter memories that she’d thought she’d put behind her. Losing her father at sixteen. Her mother desperately trying to make ends meet by herself while also trying not to worry Izumi. Graduating from high school and college with no family there to congratulate her because her mother had to work. Hearing her mother cry herself to sleep at night and cursing herself for marrying such a dreamer. That had hurt the most, because hearing her mother say she wished she’d never married Yukio was like hearing that her mother wished she’d never had her. 

“My mother has had to put her life on hold for years because Yukio didn’t even have the decency to divorce her before he left. So if you can’t bother to tell us where he is, you can at least hand him divorce papers to sign, can’t you?” The thought had just occurred to her, but it was perfect. Let the coward continue to hide wherever he was. All they needed was his signature, they didn’t need anything else from him. What reason did Yuzo have to stand by Yukio anyway? Yukio had destroyed the Mankai Theater by leaving it, taking away the job of Yuzo and nearly two dozen other actors. 

“She’s remarrying?” Yuzo ask, the color draining from his face. He backed up until he hit a chair in the lobby and then sank down into it. 

Izumi felt like she was looming over him as she crossed her arms over her chest. “What, did you think she’d wait for an eternity for a man who left her and her daughter with no explanation and no indication that he’d ever return? She’s shown far more loyalty to him than he deserved. If she meant something to him, she would have heard something from him long before now.” Her voice cracked and she flushed, backing up a step and praying that the threatening tears wouldn’t come. 

Yuzo looked up at her and his gaze softened. “I’ll see what I can do, okay? Your mother . . . you’re right that she’s been through a lot, more than she ever should have had to go through.” He paused. “The both of you have.”

“Thank you. I’ll wait to hear from you then,” Izumi said, turning on her heel and marching toward the door, wanting to escape in case the tears did come.

“Izumi,” Yuzo called. She didn’t turn around, but she stopped. “Your father is proud of what you’ve accomplished with the Mankai company. He thinks very highly of you. Someday, when he can, I know he wants to be part of your life again.”

Izumi snorted. “He’s chosen to not be part of my life for nine years. I don’t think I’ll be so interested in letting him back in if he decides I’m convenient enough to include in his life again.”

She stomped out. The tears were definitely there now. Yuzo’s last statement had pushed her over the edge. How dare her father act like he wanted to be part of her life someday. After all the milestones he’d missed, he no longer deserved to be part of it. 

She was so carried away in her thoughts that she didn’t notice someone was standing in front of her until she plowed into them. They grabbed her arms to steady her and she stuttered out, “I-I’m so sorry, please excuse me.” But they didn’t let her go. She looked up into the concerned face of Omi and gasped. 

“Izumi?” he said, his eyes dark with concern. “What happened?”

Part of her wanted to turn and run. She didn’t want one of her actors to see her like this. She was a pillar of strength, energy, and inspiration for them. It was part of her job as director to be that for them. 

Omi’s grip tightened a little. “What’s wrong, Izumi? Are you hurt?” 

She shook her head, her lower lip trembling as the tears continued to come. 

He pulled her to him, cupping the back of her head. “Will you please tell me what’s wrong? You’re scaring me, Izumi.” 

Once more, Izumi found herself in the middle of the sidewalk blocking traffic, however people seemed a lot more willing to go around Omi then they’d been going around her. 

“Let’s go somewhere else to talk,” she said quietly. There was no way she could go back to the dorms in the state. Given enough time she could calm herself down enough to fake being okay, but she didn’t want to fake it. She wanted to actually be okay and talking about it might help. 

~.~

Omi ended up taking her to a quiet tea shop. She idly wondered if Homare had told him about this place, because it didn’t strike her as a place Omi would spend time in. If he went somewhere, he wanted to scope out recipes he to replicate or improve upon. 

Omi silently watched her, waiting for her to speak up. She sighed before smiling sadly down at her tea. “You know that the Mankai Theater was in a lot of debt and on the verge of collapse for our first year, but you probably haven’t heard that Sakyo was on the verge of tearing the theater down since it appeared impossible for the debt to be paid back. And when I say the theater was about to be torn down, I mean Sakoda was waiting outside with a bulldozer.” 

She sighed again. “Matsukawa was desperate to save the theater, so he wrote a letter to my house addressed to my father. Dad hadn’t set foot there since weeks before he disappeared, but I guess Matsukawa hadn’t known that. When my mom and I got the letter, I went to the theater hoping to find clues about my father, but then things turned out very differently. When I become the director, I forgot all about searching for my father in my rush to keep the theater alive and help all our actors grow.” 

“So, something happened today to bring your father up again?” Omi guessed. 

Alternating between starting at her tea and looking at Omi, she told him about her mother’s dilemma and about talking to Yuzo, then she told him about her father wanting to see her “when he could.” 

“Have you decided that you no longer want to find your father?” he asked. “That you don’t want to see him again?”

She shrugged. “It would be a lie to say that I don’t want to hear that he wants to see me, that I don’t want him to want to be part of my life. I want Yuzo to tell him that I feel he has no right to think he can come back into my life after all this time.” Her voice got quieter. “But part of me wants him to hear that and then come anyway, because wouldn’t that at least show that he’s serious about wanting to see me?” She shook her head. “But what valid excuse can there possibly be for abandoning your wife and child? There’s nothing he could say that would make the past okay.”

Omi nodded. “I know that this situation is different, but I felt abandoned when my mother died. She never would have left me, left our family, willingly, but it still felt like she’d abandoned us, so I tried my best to support my brothers in any way I could so that they wouldn’t feel the lack of our mother being gone.” 

Izumi put her hand over his and waited until he looked into her eyes to tell him, “You’re a wonderful mother, Omi. The very best.”

Omi laughed. “Thank you, Izumi. I try.” He looked into her eyes again, as though trying to gauge something. “If you’re up for it, we should probably head home before our horde goes wild with hunger. And, if you’re not up for it, then we’ll go out to eat and leave them to starve.”

Izumi smiled. “We can go home. Thank you for listening to my troubles, Omi.”

“I may not be able to do anything to help, but I would like it if you always came to me when you have troubles,” he told her quietly. “I can at least lend a sympathetic ear, and I don’t want you to ever feel like you have to keep something like this to yourself.”

“Thank you,” she said again before rubbing at her eyes. “You can’t tell that I’ve been crying, can you?” Having Omi see her cry was one thing, but she didn’t want the rest of her actors to be able to tell. 

His mouth quirked to the side as he studied her. “Hm. I think if you’re able to smile like always, no one will be able to tell by the time we make it home.” 

“Okay,” Izumi said, giving him a cheesy grin. “Then let’s go home.”


End file.
